British Focusing Association NEWSLETTER Issue 9: July 2017 CONTENTS Page No. Editorials ......................................................................................................................... 2 From the Sofa by Susan Jordan & Rob Foxcroft ............................................................... 3 In Remembrance of Gene Gendlin by Pamela Carr .................................................... 5 If I Keep Nothing Between—a Tribute to Gene Gendlin by Patricia Foster .............. 6 Untangling Parts of Ourselves by Helen Bower & Matthew Harwood ........................ 8 Children Focusing in the UK by Sara Bradly ...............................................................12 Biospirituality: a Brief Overview by Lesley Wilson ......................................................15 Your Body is Your Home: Poems on a Biospiritual Theme .....................................17 Embodied Presence by Addie van der Kooy ................................................................18 My Biotope: Finding Your Optimal Inner Environment by Michael Lomvardos ..... 19 Focusing with Pain by Fiona Parr ................................................................................ 22 BFA Summer Focusing Community Camp by Gordon Adam ................................... 25 UEA Counselling Course Closure by Sara Bradly ....................................................... 26 The Wisdom of Groundhog Day—a Book Review by Pamela Carr ........................... 27 Practitioner Profile—Carolann Samuels..................................................................... 29 Workshops, Events, & Groups Listing ........................................................................ 30 Focusing Resources Information .................................... ........................................... 32 Supporting Your Focusing Journey www.focusing.org.uk From the Editors Gordon Adam Just a few months ago it looked as if we might have quite a small issue this time round – however, amazingly – from somewhere, we have manifested yet another ‘bumper issue’ of 32 pages! This hasn’t just fallen into our laps however – a lot of outreach work is needed to invite and encourage and remind people to take some time to write something for inclusion. I would say that about half of the content in this issue has been sourced in this way – so, thank you to everyone who has risen to the call! The subscription to the newsletter continues to increase at a healthy rate and currently stands at about 470 people – with the majority resident in the UK, but including subscribers from all over the world. Apart from going out to subscribers, the newsletter is made freely available on the BFA website, and is sent out as a weblink or pdf to many Focusing organisations and Facebook Focusing Groups. Please feel free to share it with anyone who may benefit from reading it. Apart from producing this newsletter, my own creative Focusing-related activity in the last few months has largely centred around helping organise the first ever UK Summer Focusing Camp – this is an exciting adventure which will bring around 40 Focusers and their family together for 4 days of fun and Focusing at the end of August – see page 25 for full details. www.focusing.org.uk/Gordon-Adam [email protected] Pamela Carr It’s great to be part of such an amazing team effort and to work on this collaborative creative project. I counted at least fourteen people who have been involved in planning, producing and mailing out this latest edition of the BFA Newsletter. And I’m realising that each one of us benefits from that involvement in a variety of ways. In particular I sense that all the planning and writing carried out by our authors may also bring them opportunities and personal benefits from reflecting on their experiences of studying, using and sharing Focusing. The WebPages and email addresses make it easy for any of us to find out more and to link up with others who have similar interests. So here’s another bumper Newsletter offering a wide range of Focusing-related subjects. Do contact one of us if you have even just a seed of an idea for a future issue, we would love to hear from you and to support your writing. www.focusing.org.uk/Pamela-Carr www.focusingforall.com [email protected] Credits Design & Layout: Gordon Adam Photographs: Sue Akehurst, Gordon Adam, Pamela Carr, Fiona Parr Proof Reading: Caroline Redmond, Pamela Carr Webmaster: Rob Matthews Distribution: Gordon Adam BFA Newsletter Issue 9: July 2017 Page 2 From the Sofa By Susan Jordan and Rob Foxcroft It's been a while since you've heard from the joint Chairpersons of BFA, known collectively as the Sofa. Since the wonderful international conference in Cambridge last year things have been much quieter on the BFA front, but progress is being made in a variety of ways, from the Focusing community summer camp to a bursary fund which we are in the process of setting up in order to give people who couldn't otherwise afford it the chance to attend Focusing courses. The annual gathering and AGM is a highlight of the Association's year, even when it is overshadowed by larger events like the conference. It's a chance for members to spend time together Focusing, discussing whatever needs to be discussed, offering and participating in workshops and simply enjoying each other's company. The AGM itself takes place on the Sunday morning after a weekend of activities. BFA now has 55 or so members – compared to less than 30 when I first joined – and the average attendance at an annual gathering is about 18. As you may well have seen from the website, our members offer a wide range of skills and interests. There are teachers of yoga, Nonviolent Communication and the Alexander technique, musicians, poets, performers, artists, activists, scholars and scientists, as well as counsellors and psychotherapists. At last year’s AGM it was clear that many of our members are committed to making Focusing more widely available in the community. Some are actively involved in projects using Focusing and Experiential Listening for community wellness and support. Abdul Matin Omary, a refugee from Afghanistan, has been working with the Afghan community in London and Alex Brew and Kay Hoffmann have worked with women who have been detained. Greg Madison, Chris Wilson and others are offering Focusing as a support for activist groups. The inclusivity bursary fund which we are setting up will be available to people from these different groups in the community. We are grateful to Suzi Mackenzie and other members of BFA's diversity subgroup for all the work they have put into this. Although at the moment BFA does not have a direct connection with the newly formed EFA (European Focusing Association), BFA Saturday night fun at the 2016 AGM member Fiona Parr is part of the committee which set it up and drafted its vision statement. The committee was interested in BFA's ways of working together as an association and our consensus model of decision making. A number of BFA members are now also members of EFA and we hope this will bring a wider international perspective to our association. At present BFA has several members who are based in Europe, either temporarily or permanently, including Astrid Schillings in Germany, Peter Kuklis in Slovakia and Ildiko Davis in Hungary. We are very pleased to keep our links with them. Membership of BFA (formerly the British Focusing Teachers' Association) has always been for Focusing practitioners and teachers. At the AGM BFA stated its commitment to developing an open and inclusive community of Focusers. The form this community will take is still evolving, but the summer Focusing community camp organised by Gordon Adam, Kay Hoffmann and Camilla Sim will be an opportunity for people who are involved with Focusing to come together. Karunamati and some other BFA members have been working on a questionnaire which will be sent out as widely as possible to the Focusing community, so that we can find out what Focusers would like from BFA. BFA Newsletter Issue 9: July 2017 Page 3 We are now in our third year on the BFA Sofa. We're very pleased at all that's been happening in BFA and look forward to further developments as new members joining us bring fresh ideas and different per- spectives. Susan Jordan is a sofa-person of the BFA together with Rob Foxcroft. She has been a Focusing practitioner and teacher since 2003 and is also a Core Process (Buddhist- based) psychotherapist and supervisor. She runs workshops on Focusing for Psycho- therapists and Focusing for Writers and is interested in the crossovers between Focus- ing and Buddhist meditation. Besides teaching Focusing and being a committed Focuser, she is a writer and poet; her first poetry collection will be published in 2017. She lives in Devon, close to Dart- moor, and loves the moor and the south Devon coast. [email protected] Rob Foxcroft Early on, I was blessed with three teachers who were gentle, musical and kind: Philip Radcliffe, Guy Jonson and Maisie Aldridge. I began to teach. I looked for ways for human beings to learn and grow and relate to one another that would not be essen- tially authoritarian, but respectful, benevolent and free. In 1988 I went to Chicago to study with Gene Gendlin and became a Focusing Coor- dinator. I studied the person-centred way of being with Brian Thorne and his col- leagues. Now I teach piano-playing, offer spiritual accompaniment, and teach people the principles of meditative listening. [email protected] 28th International